Interview With Actor Samuel Bottomley (California Schemin)

Samuel Bottomley talks his career experience so far as a northern-based creative, his role of Billy in James McAvoy’s directorial debut California Schemin’, and Ronan Day Lewis’ upcoming American drama, Anemone.

“They call it street casting, but I wasn’t just picked up off of the street.” Samuel’s career was kick-started when he was street-cast at age nine. Sam described his journey so far as “difficult, but rewarding,” stating that without his parent’s endless support and aid with his travel and expenses up and down the country, that he would not be where he is right now, “I don’t know where I’d be, probably working a trade with my dad!”

Samuel is now a Bafta-nominated actor, becoming a recognisable name for his performances in Somewhere Boy (2022), and How To Have Sex (2023). Recent founder of West Yorkshire Workshop, based in Bradford, WYW aims to provide accessible, affordable, comfortable-but-professional acting workshops in the North of England, aimed at both industry professionals, and those entirely new to acting.

Mia: Hi Sam! Things are changing a lot in Northern England, especially around where you are based nearby to Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, and Manchester. Have you experienced any career difficulties or prejudice as a result of living in The North?

Samuel: ‘It’s difficult, but it’s nice when you do a job up-North, and you’re almost surrounded by your own people- it just feels like one big family. People always ask me, even still, “do you think you’ll ever move?” And it’s like, unless I really wanted to, had a lot of friends in London, or felt like I was missing out on something down there, then no. I honestly just love it up here. I love it!’

Mia: I think for a lot of people, being Northern is an asset. There are so many familiar faces from Yorkshire that stick to their authenticities on screen, such as their accents, and in many cases made their career.

Samuel: Definitely, like Sean Bean! My accent I’ve always been very proud of. Maybe in different industries, like music and stuff like that, things would have been different. I can change my accent quite well as well, I can do it well enough to get jobs where I need to not sound Northern. Maybe when I was younger, and I was a little bit too broad and used to mumble, that held me back a little bit.

Mia: Onto your ‘right now,’ speaking of Sean Bean and Anemone, what current projects are you working on?

Samuel: I did three jobs towards the end of the year last year, after a bit of a dry spell mid-year where I wasn’t as busy as I’d have liked to have been. But the year ended with some really amazing jobs. An ITV drama called Cold Water, which is a bit of a drama-thriller that I was up in Glasgow filming for around 13 weeks. In-between that I got involved with Anemone, which Sean Bean is also in, and Daniel Day-Lewis’ son wrote it. My part wasn’t huge, so I wasn’t on set a lot, but I got to do that for around three weeks in Chester. At the end of the year, I did California Schemin’, which is about two rappers from Scotland in the early noughties who were really into the hip-hop scene. They tried to get signed down in London but got laughed at- so they went back down to London a couple of weeks later with American accents and blagged it! They kind-of blagged it as a bit of a laugh, but people believed them, so they kept it up for years. It’s such a mad story.

Mia: What a story! Your projects are popping up all over right now, especially with the news of Daniel Day Lewis’ return, which just absolutely blew up! Is there anything that you can tell us about your role in Anemone?

Samuel: I don’t know how much I can tell you! But can definitely say that I’ve been working with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean, and that alone was just mad.

Mia: What was your experience like working alongside them? It must have felt like such a pinch-me moment!

Samuel: It was tough… it was really hard work; I was pushing myself every day to be fair. I was working with Samantha Moreton as well, and had most of my scenes with her, and two scenes with Sean Bean. It’s beautiful getting to watch him. Actors have their methods, if you know what I mean. He was so good at compromising with things that aligned with his methods, which really helped the process. He makes excuses for his characters to do certain things, and turn certain ways towards cameras, and just compromised with the crew. Lessons like that, it’s so inspiring, and just so cool watching him work. So cool. And Samantha Moreton as well, watching her… just how she is, it’s brilliant – I definitely learnt a lot from her. I felt like I’d been plain sailing for a year, I wasn’t busy before the end of this year. But now I’ve gone and done [Cold Water], I’ve warmed up a little bit and then gone into there, and she’s given me a complete other level to work towards. I’ve got to step up to a different level to work with her, to be next to her in a scene. It made me step up massively.

Mia: It sounds like you’ve learnt so much. Do you take a lot of this in, and adapt it to your own style of performance?

Samuel: That’s exactly it really. Everybody’s got their own style, but everyone’s also inspired by everyone else. I pick up things from everything that I watch, especially certain methods- but you can’t really ‘see’ a technique unless someone’s telling you exactly how it’s done. It’s good to take something from everything that you do. I feel like I don’t think about how mental it is sometimes, until after I’ve done it. There could be moments on set where I could just bottle it, but I can’t think about it in the moment, I just have to do it. Especially for Anemone, it was a lot of pressure. But I do really enjoy it, even when it gets hard.

Mia: With news of California Schemin’ finally appearing online, as James McAvoy’s directorial debut, again- what can you tell us so far about your role, and your experience working with the cast?

Samuel: It was a great job, man! The story is about two rappers, just two normal lads from Scotland, and the character that I play is called Billy. I love rap, and grew up on hip-hop, so it’s cool to live in that world and be those sorts of guys that love the culture. Especially at the time in 2004 when it was bubbling. Eminem had just come out, Dr Dre’s album had come out a couple of years before, all of that 90s rap. These two lads just loved it. Billy is such a cool, happy character to play. He’s very bubbly, confident, and positive. He’s a real person as well, so I got to meet him and speak to him. He’s such a good guy to be around. I’ve played real people before, but I don’t think I’ve ever played anyone that’s living. I played Cromwell, but can’t exactly meet him, haha! It was such an interesting experience, meeting Billy. I got to have a chat with him, and hear his stories. Because California Schemin’ is such an interesting story- and for someone to be able to do what he did, just lying constantly… Light-heartedly, but then getting a little bit deep into it. After you’ve been doing it for two years, and you’ve got a girlfriend and she’s coming down to London to see you, you’ve got to kind of give up on it. It’s just mental, and so cool to listen to him, and hear about what he actually went through.

Mia: What was it like working with McAvoy as a director?

Samuel: Honestly, it was fun everyday working with McAvoy and doing stuff like bouncing around on stage and rapping. We did scenes at the Barrowland… Mental! I went to go and see The Libertines there only a couple of weeks before filming, when I was filming Cold Water also up in Scotland. To then be able to stand on the other side, it was just mental. It was a full crowd of over 1000 people, totally packed out!

Mia: It must have felt crazy to be doing something like that, especially at such a well known, ‘bucket-list’ venue!

Samuel: We had the run of it, as well! We were filming there for a couple of days, it was so great going backstage where so-and-so and so many big names have been. I’m a big music fan as well, so it was a dream.

Mia: As you mentioned earlier, you’re really into hip-hop, rap, and the culture surrounding it during the 2000s. Do you have any favourite artists in that genre?

Samuel: 100% yeah! I love 50 Cent. I’m going to have to say Lil Baby as well because he is one of my favourites, and I used to like Polo G a lot as well, he’s got three great albums that I still listen to. Kanye West I’m into massively, and I got into him when I was there working in Scotland. Obviously, it’s a bit different now, haha! But those first few albums like Graduation are great. I like Mac Miller as well, he’s awesome. Of course you’ve got to get Eminem in there as well. So, a mix of old-school, and a bit of new school, really. I specifically remember, in the early days, being on the train going back and forth from London, with my dad’s iPod. Rapping Eminem’s lyrics, then going back and replaying a line, and trying to remember it. I think this is where learning lines came from, actually! Just from trying to figure out and remember lyrics from rap.

Mia: When meeting Billy, was there anything about his persona that was particularly hard to replicate? Did you throw a bit of your own style and method into the character?

Samuel: You can’t replicate him, because he’s something and someone else entirely, and that would be so hard. But it didn’t need it. We had a few conversations about it, me and James, and James was very much into what I did with it. I wasn’t really going for a completely accurate representation of him. Obviously subconsciously the thought was there, but I sort-of did my own version of him. I think that James really liked what I did there, even with the accent. Dundee is a very broad accent, but Billy is quite softly and well spoken, not as harsh. So, I didn’t try to do his accent exactly, but I went for a light Dundonian.

Mia: Has Billy seen any of your performance yet?

Samuel: No, he hasn’t! I went to go and see James last week in London, actually, as he said that we could go down and take a look at the edits and get a sneak peek. It looked ace! He showed me the footage from the Barrowland, and it just looks sick. I’m not sure if anyone else has seen anything, it might be just me!

Mia: Out of all of your recent projects, what are you most excited about seeing when these finally come to the screen?

Samuel: Definitely California Schemin’! I’ve already seen two really good scenes so far. I’d like to see me skateboarding actually. We had to skateboard, and I broke my elbow!

Mia: Wow! You had to skateboard? Had you never skateboarded before landing the role in California Schemin’?

Samuel: So, we had two weeks, and during those weeks we had two hours of skateboarding lessons every day. I was smashing it during the first week, and by the end of it I was going up and down ramps, turning and all-sorts. They wanted me to learn how to drop-in within two weeks, it’s so scary, and that’s how I broke my elbow. I was going up and down ramps, and had gotten it right a few times before, but tried doing it pretty high and ended up falling backwards, I’d had elbow pads on as well. I probably won’t skateboard again, but we did a couple of reshoots a few weeks later, so I gave it another go, but I’d
never skateboarded before the film.

Mia: You’re working on some really exciting things within your own personal life, especially the launch of West Yorkshire Workshops, how does it feel to be launching something so new?

Samuel: I’m looking forward to it, and it’s getting real now. It’ll be so good to be around creative people and directing them a little bit. I don’t want to call it teaching, as I’m not a teacher, but I’m planning on bringing other people in such as directors, but it will be interesting seeing how I convey my own style of acting to others. The first day they’ll pick out a script, we’ll go through character breakdowns and figure out the path that they want to take, and then on the second day we’ll work on performing to the best of their ability. Of course I want actors to come, but also, I expect people that have never acted before to come in. I’m looking forward to it! It’s good for people to work with directors, as if you want to understand, you need to work closely with them and get on board with what they’re thinking, get in tune with them. For March we have Libby Burke Wilde, who’s a directed a short film music video that I did last year- she’s going to come and do the first session with me for the second day. So we have professionals there that people can ask things to and really get something out of that. In April we have Penny Woolcock, who directed the first season of Ackley Bridge, she’s very big on doing things with young people that haven’t acted before- so that will be really good. For May we have Molly Manning Walker who directed How To Have Sex, she’s coming! We’ll also be recording bits of the final day, so people will have something to take home. They can get it and look over it, show it to their agents if they have one, post it on social media, whatever they want to do!

Mia: That sounds really interesting, and invaluable to those joining the workshops! It’s such an asset to be offering people the chance to almost ‘take-home’ a piece of their work, and work on such a personal level with industry professionals.

Samuel: Hopefully it also makes me better- I want to learn and improve, you’re always learning. I’m looking forward to it so much, it’s scary as it’s the first thing that I’ve sort of done by myself. But I’m excited.

For more information on West Yorkshire Workshops. Head to westyorkshireworkshop.co.uk